Crvena zvezda v Benfica Prediction: Goals at both ends and no stalemate the way to go

It's Crvena zvezda v Benfica on Thursday in the Champions League on Thursday, kick-off time 17:45, with a live broadcast on TNT Sports 4.   

Jamie Pacheco has found 11/8 and 13/8 shots worth backing in two very different markets and talks you through his rationale on both with his Crvena zvezda vs Benfica predictions in his match preview here on Betred Insights...

Crvena zvezda 

Crvena zvedza, or Red Star Belgrade if you prefer, had to beat Bodo/Glimt of Norway to make it this far, losing 2-1 away and then winning 2-0 at home to book their place in the Group Stages.  

They’ve been pretty devastating on the domestic front, with six wins from seven, which included scoring four goals on four occasions. Sure, the level is quite a bit below what they’ll be facing here, or the rest of the Champions League for that matter, but their goalscoring exploits are impressive, nonetheless. 

Brazilian midfielder Bruno Duarte, who will know Benfica well from his time at Farense has been among the goals with six in nine matches, while Senegalese striker Cherif Ndiaye has four in seven. 

Possible Starting lineup: Ilic, Spajic, Djiga, Young-Woo, Mimovic, Ivanic, In-Beom, Olayinka. Elsnik, Duarte, Ndiaye.    

Benfica 

Bruno Lage started his second spell in charge at Benfica in style with a fine 4-1 win over Santa Clara at the weekend. Apparently, he wasn’t the first choice of President Rui Costa to succeed ‘dead-man walking’ Roger Schmidt (we don’t know who was) but the spirit and energy already looks much better within the squad.  

That said, things couldn’t have started any worse for him and Benfica, conceding after just one minute before recovering to win 4-1.  

Kerem Arturkoglu, formerly of Galatasaray, opened Benfica’s account with a fine finish before busy midfielder Florentino Luis added a second and centre-back Antonio Silva a third. 36-year-old Angel di Maria may have lost his pace but not his class, completing the comeback with lovely lob before being given a breather.  

Benfica had a hard time of it in last year’s Champions League (before going on a good run in the Europa League) so will need to improve if they’re to progress and keep on picking up priceless prize money.  

Possible Starting Lineup:  Trubin, Fernandez, Silva, Bah, Otamendi, Kokcu, Di Maria, Arturkoglu, Rollheiser, Florentino, Di Maria Pavlidis.  

Crvena zvezda vs Benfica Odds 

When these two played each other almost exactly 40 years ago to the day, it ended in a 3-2 win for Red Star, only for Benfica to win the second leg 2-0 and progress in the European Cup, as it then was. The relevance of such a result is pretty limited, as you can imagine. 

Benfica are 9/10 to win and that looks the correct price. They were poor in the Champions League last season, losing all of their first four matches before drawing at Inter and beating Salzburg away in their last match, to at least book a place in the Europa League.  

Good as they were in recovering from that early goal at the weekend, they’ll be facing a far better opponent here in a notoriously hostile environment with the crowd surely playing their part and it’s too soon to know how long it will take Bruno Lage to improve the side in the face of tougher challenges like this one. For the time being, it’s a price to leave alone. A draw at 13/5 should see some support, while the home win is priced at 3/1.   

No Draw and Both Teams to Score 

A far more confident selection is that both teams will score (BTTS). Red Star have scored in each of their nine matches to date this season, accumulating 24 goals in the process. Five of those nine would have paid out in the BTTS market.  

Benfica have scored in four of their five matches, a total of nine goals. 

BTTS is 8/13 and that looks a tad short, but we can beef up those odds with the ‘No Draw and Both Teams to Score” option.  Just one of Red Star’s nine matches this season ended in a draw and just one of Benfica’s five, so these two don’t tend to do stalemates.  

With the home win not impossible, the away win quite likely and BTTS looking good, this appears a good option at 11/8.   

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